How can joy bring us peace? When we feel Joy, we are looking at the world through the rose-colored glasses of Joy. Our current joyful perception takes the edge off any struggle that we might be engaged in or the struggle we see around us. Peace is the absence of struggle. When the edge of struggle is taken off, we can step back and ask ourselves, do we really want to participate in this struggle? Is it even a real struggle? Does struggle exist? It sure seems to exist. After all a lot of people seem to be doing it.

Ask yourself, why am I doing this? If I want to continue doing this, is it really hard? Or is it interesting or maybe even exciting or fun. So then how did it go from being a struggle to fun?

Then I ask myself, can I let my mind go to already done? Is it really already done? Then what am I doing? I am participating. I am going with the flow. Going with the flow is easy. I can choose to ride down the hill on my sled or I can climb up the mountain pulling my toboggan behind me.

Feeding the Horses.

So, when I feed the horses in the morning, I pull the toboggan with a bale of hay. Twice for each herd. It is 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Then I do it again in two different directions for each herd with the grain. It can be a struggle in the deep snow. With clothes so thick that I can barely walk. It takes 15 minutes to put all those clothes on and another 15 minutes to take them off. In this process, I can choose to see myself struggling. Or I can choose it to be easy. I could also choose it to be fun.

Today it is cold and snowing. How do I choose to see it today? I choose to see it through fun and Joy. I don’t try to get it done as fast as I can. But rather I stop, look up at the world, take a deep breath and breathe in the Peace that I see around me. I look off into the distant woods. Up at the sky and back over at the house nestled in the banks of plowed snow. Hurry offers only the sense of struggle. Stopping offers the potential for Joy. It offers peace. And then all of a sudden, the job is done. I notice that it is already done. And I go into the house feeling not exhausted from the labor but invigorated.

Techniques for feeling Peace through Joy

• Let go of struggling with whatever you are doing. Stop. Take a few deep breaths. Look around you. Be grateful for being here. Choose to participate in what you are doing from that’s interesting. Or that’s fun or that’s …fill in the blank with something other than struggle.
• Say three times. I choose to let go of the idea of struggle. I choose easy. I choose fun. I choose….

• Say three times. I wonder how easy this could possibly be. Then wait and watch

Now you have a choice. You can share. You can comment. You can implement. I hope you will do all three. Please Join the Joy Project below by sharing your email address.

My Free Joy guide